Central Africans to get partial presidential results Tuesday

Partial results for the Central African Republic’s presidential run-off will be announced Tuesday, although the official winner will not be known for at least a week, the country’s National Election Authority (ANE) said Monday.

Julius Ngouade Baba of the ANE told AFP that there was “a great improvement” in the organisation of Sunday’s vote compared to the first round, adding that voting material was distributed in time to even the most remote provinces.

Votes were counted late into the night, with some locations still tallying early Monday morning, Baba said. Now the ballots must be sent to Bangui to be re-counted with representatives for each candidate present.

“Right now, the results are beginning to come in to the data processing centre,” he said, adding that the ANE will announce partial results Tuesday and the tentative full results within a week.

The two candidates vying for the presidency are both former prime ministers who have campaigned on promises to restore security and boost the economy in the mineral-rich but dirt-poor country.

The first round on December 30 was won by ex-premier Anicet Georges Dologuele, a 58-year-old former central banker known as “Mr Clean” for his attempts to bring transparency to murky public finances when in office. He took 23.78 percent of the vote.

He faced off against Faustin Archange Touadera, also 58. The former maths professor, who is standing as an independent, surprised everyone by coming second in the first round with 19.4 percent.

The second round of voting, which included delayed legislative elections, took place under tight security with thousands of UN peacekeepers deployed across the country, but the polls apparently passed off peacefully.

While no official figures have been released, Touadera’s entourage said they were “satisfied and confident”.

Touadera’s director of communication Charles Lemasset said that the candidate is “far ahead” in several districts. Dologuele was not available for comment Monday.

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